Which City Buys the Most Sunglasses? by Monica

Which City Buys the Most Sunglasses? by Monica - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

The most interesting lesson I learned in a class actually came from an offhand trivia bit from my professor in the World Regional Geography course—my self-proclaimed “most interesting class I ever took in college." It was such an interesting trivia bit, actually, that I heard it on the morning radio trivia challenge on the way to school a year or so later. I actually called in when I got to campus, got to talk on the radio, and won! I won a McRib Value Meal from McDonald’s if you were wondering. 
 
Professor Hooey told us the city that buys the most pairs of sunglasses per year. Should I stop now and let you think to yourself what the answer is? Did you guess Miami? Or Los Angeles? Neither of those. The answer is actually Seattle. 
 
How on earth could Seattle residents buy the most pairs of sunglasses each year, every year? It’s always so dark and overcast there. The reason, according to Dr. Hooey, is that since the sun rarely comes out during the year, its citizens rarely need to wear their one pair of sunglasses. In the meantime, they misplace their glasses for most of the year and then the one time they need to find them to wear them, they can’t find them! They then have to go out and buy a whole new pair of glasses. I could only imagine they’re being blinded by the light on the way to the Sunglass Hut.